This post was originally published in December 2015. We've updated it for webinar best practices for business in 2017.

Webinars or webcasts are a powerful lead generation tool in your digital marketing program. As a middle of the funnel offer, a webcast is more personal than an article or ebook and help potential clients get to know your company before having a sales conversation.

Many of our clients have started webinar programs with much success, and others express hesitation for how to get started. We're often asked for a script or an agenda to help them structure it properly. A script is very useful if you've never hosted a webinar before and so we're providing one here.

Choose a presenter who is a subject matter expert and an engaging speaker.

Build a visually interesting slide deck.

Set up and schedule your webinar.

Integrate registration with your CRM/database so you can automate capture of leads.

Promote.

Present (see below for script).

Follow up!

Sample Webinar Introduction Script and Template

So without further ado, here is a sample webinar script and template that you can use to present your own webinars. This script assumes that the webinar will involve two people: a host and a presenter.

Webinars are an awesome component of a healthy inbound marketing program. Webinars make it easy to get in front of your prospects and clients and help them solve problems while giving them a taste of your personality. People want to buy from people they know, like and trust and if they hear you speak in real time, it goes a long way toward helping them get to know you.

One challenge that some of our clients have is how to increase registrations for their webinars. They have a great presentation prepared and a great message to share but they have not yet built a large email list. This is where Facebook Lead Ads can be a powerful tool.

Webinars can be a powerful part of your inbound marketing strategy. You can plan even the smallest of details, but if you don't promote it, you're going to have put more into it than you'll get out of it. That being said, promotion is just as important as executing the actual webinar.

If you have an upcoming webinar on your content calendar, here are a few ways to promote it well.